St. Maarten Parliament meets for third time about budget amendment

POSTED: 09/30/14 12:25 AM

St. Maarten – The Parliament meets this morning at 10 a.m. for the third time in a row to handle an amendment to the 2014 budget. On two earlier occasions, the meeting did not go through due to a lack of quorum. This morning’s meeting will be held, irrelevant of the number of parliamentarians present.

The budget amendments have to do with the intention to buy the Emilio Wilson estate and the Vorst Estate. The coalition that formed after the elections in August intended to take the provision for buying the Vorst Estate out of the amendment, because it considers the price too high. It is currently unclear whether there is still a majority for such a decision.

The Parliament will also deal with a resolution about a request to ask the Kingdom Council of State for an advice about the instruction the Kingdom Council of Ministers gave to the governor of St. Maarten in September of last year to commission an integrity investigation. This resolution also sees to a similar request regarding the instruction to the governor of Aruba to investigate the validity of that country’s 2014 budget.

A third point is the establishment of an independent institution for handling disputes between countries in the Kingdom.

The Council of State declared already last year that it did not want to get involved with the instruction of the Kingdom Council of Ministers to the governor of St. Maarten.